For the second episode of auditions on Gordon Ramsay’s “Next Level Chef,” which aired on Fox on Thursday, eight home chefs were dropped into the show to fight for five spots in the competition. One of the home chefs was Stratford caterer Cathy Cann.
Cann, a self-trained chef, operates her Connecticut-based catering company Cat’s Kitchen. If Cann wins “Next Level Chef,” she will receive a one-year mentorship, $250,000 and the title of “Next Level Chef.”
Last week on the show, Guilford social media chef Iléna Tovia made a first round exit in the season four premiere. The mother of four, who is a social media influencer that goes by the screen name of “mommailena,” made what the judges felt was a dry arancini without any sauce — prompting her to be the first chef cut on the show.
On “Next Level Chef,” contestants are spread across three different teams that each work on different levels of a three-story kitchen. Each level has a different quality of cooking equipment and it is up to each chef to produce the best dish with the equipment and ingredients they are given. Ramsay, along with celebrity chefs Nyesha Arrington and Richard Blais, serve as mentors on the show. The show is comprised of social media chefs, home chefs and professional chefs.
In the first round of this week’s audition episode, which takes place at the bottom level, the home chefs were tasked to get creative with pantry items such as spam, kidney beans, corn flakes and boxed mac and cheese. In the middle of the round, Cann ended up needing medical attention after cutting her finger with a knife while trying to open a can. She bounced back quickly into the competition and finished the round. Her ragú earned praise from Ramsay, who called it “delicious.”
Stratford chef Cathy Cann will be competing on Gordon Ramsay’s “Next Level Chef.”
Abby Cole Photography/Contributed photo
Chef Ruma Kashoro would make the first exit of the episode after the judges were confused with the concept of his salmon dish with lemon butter sauce.
Moving up to the second round and middle kitchen, the challenge was to create a dish that the chefs would make for a loved one. The round featured better ingredients including ground beef, pork loin, sea bass, turkey breast cutlet and skirt steak. Cann’s ground beef Bolognese earned few remarks compared to her first dish with the only comment coming from Arrington that she had “a little restraint on the paprika.” Ultimately, her dish was good enough to make it to the last round.
Chef Nick Caiazzo, a lawyer, made his exit in the second round after platting his sea bass incorrectly, which didn’t allow for the judges to taste the crispy skin of the fish. Additionally, the judges felt the capers made his dish salty.
The last round, which was held in the top kitchen, featured the best ingredients and equipment including salmon, a lamb rack and pork chops. During this round, Cann was able to talk more about her path to becoming a chef as well as details about her husband’s cancer diagnosis.
“In one of the darkest times of my life, I really leaned into cooking. It allowed me to escape from everything that I just didn’t want to think about,” Cann told the cameras. “So when I say that cooking saved me, it really, literally did save me.”
In the last round, Cann landed in the bottom two. Her pork was cooked “beautifully,” according to Ramsay, but her sauce needed more work. Cann was up against chef Jimmy Parreira, a Navy fighter pilot who had been in the bottom two in the past two rounds.
The third time did not end up being the charm for Parreira as the judges chose Cann to move forward in the competition.
Joining Cann for the home chefs are Arnav Kamulkar, Megan Keno, Natalia Gutierrez and Maryam Ishtiaq.
The next episode, which is the last audition road, will air on Fox on Thursday, Feb. 27 at 8 p.m. It will stream the next day on Hulu. Cann will appear on the episode following the auditions.
